


Far From The Tree

by jargonelle



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-16
Updated: 2014-05-16
Packaged: 2018-01-25 09:36:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1644050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jargonelle/pseuds/jargonelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scorpius, Albus and Rose aren’t ever going to change the Wizarding world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Far From The Tree

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [the 2012 HP Next Gen Fest on Livejournal.](http://hp-nextgen-fest.livejournal.com/)
> 
> Thanks to drcjsnider for submitting the prompt:  
> ‘Rose, Scorpius and Albus are all screwed up in various ways – what mistakes by their parents account for their issues?’ plus the Heinlein quote below.

  
_“Don't handicap your children by making their lives easy.”_   
Robert Heinlein

***

When Scorpius is ten, his mother sits him down and tells him everything she can remember about the war. She finishes with, “Your father doesn’t know if it’s safe for you to go to Hogwarts.”

Scorpius runs to his room and cries. 

Hours later, when he’s hungry enough, Scorpius slips downstairs. He doesn’t find his parents in the dining room, but he sees light flickering through the open door of the parlour and creeps closer.

His mother and father are stood near the fire, hugging, his father’s head resting on his mother’s shoulder.

“Maybe we should change his name,” his father says, “Scorpius Greengrass. For Hogwarts at least.”

“Scorpiussss Greengrassss,” she hisses, and laughs, “a fine Slytherin name if ever there was one.”

Scorpius perks up. They wouldn’t be talking like that if he weren’t going to be allowed to go.

“Any chance he’ll be in Ravenclaw? I hear it’s boring there.”

“Please. He’s got more chance of sorting Gryffindor and you know it.”

“It won’t be easy for him in Slytherin.” His father sounds incredibly sad.

His mother obviously agrees, because she pulls his father closer. “It would be nice though,” she says, “keeping it in the family like that.”

Scorpius agrees. 

Deep down, he thinks they’re all Hufflepuffs.

***

When Albus is ten, a particularly ambitious and imaginative photographer from _Witch Weekly_ approaches the Potters with an offer. She’d like to take a series of photographs, all strung together as a sort of cross between a picture book and a Muggle film, re-enacting the Harry Potter story.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you Albus?” She puts an arm around his shoulders and ruffles his hair to look more like Dad’s. “We could get you some glasses and charm on a scar. My friend Cyril’s got a lovely snowy owl we could use, and I’m sure one of the Weasleys would be happy to play your Uncle Ron. Maybe your sister could play your mum, even though that might be a little awkward in a few years time…”

Dad wants nothing to do with it though, and while Mum seems interested in some of the details, she draws her wand pretty quickly when it’s implied that as a fellow reporter, she’s obligated to get involved.

“Don’t trust everything you read,” she says.

James overhears. “I promise, I’ll never go to the library again.”

Dad sits down in his armchair, Lily in his lap, while James and Albus sit out of each other’s reach on the settee. Dad explains how it’s his job to discover the truth and uphold the law, and how it’s Mum’s job to report on what she sees and not to make things up to sell papers, even though that’s what some journalists do. The next time Auntie Hermione visits, they’re also treated to a discussion on what sources can be trusted for homework, while Uncle Ron tells them just to use the recommended textbook like normal human beings.

Once James is back at Hogwarts after Christmas, a series of photos appears in _Witch Weekly_. 

Someone pretending to be Albus pretending to be Dad mimes his confusion at King’s Cross Station. 

Someone pretending to be Albus pretending to be Dad wanders Diagon Alley. 

Someone pretending to be Albus pretending to be Dad promises that there will be more coming next week, so be sure not to miss the next edition.

Albus shatters a plate.

“Don’t worry,” Dad says. “There won’t be any more. Ever.”

There are.

Albus doesn’t trust what he sees in the newspapers. 

He doesn’t trust ‘exclusive biographies’ either.

***

When Rose is ten, she and Hugo spend a month with their Muggle grandparents. They are retired, and have time to take Rose and Hugo into town during the week and to church on Sundays. They don’t let Hugo eat sweets, so he stomps upstairs to his unfamiliar bedroom, while Rose discovers mobile phones and computers and the internet. There are more Muggles in that small town than there are wizards in all of Britain, and Rose can talk to millions of them all over the world without having to leave the study.

Dad works on some pretty gruesome cases; Rose can always tell because he’s extra attentive when he comes home. He’ll take them to visit her Weasley grandparents, and they will all crowd together in the small kitchen, a dozen similar faces smiling back at her. It makes her uncomfortable, so Mum lets her take her dinner outside, charming the leaky umbrella to keep her dry, when it’s clear all it needs is some duct tape. 

Mum’s always complaining about the Ministry, about how far behind the Muggles wizards are when it comes to things like equality and basic rights. Rose just misses Google.

Uncle Charlie takes her to see his dragons, but she’d much rather see an elephant. Muggle children get to see elephants. Her Dad doesn’t even know how to drive properly.

When she gets her Hogwarts letter, she’s almost disappointed.

***

When Scorpius is eleven, he’s sorted into Slytherin.

So is Albus Potter (to everyone’s surprise but Potter’s, it seems). 

So is Rose Weasley (a total surprise, even to her). 

He knows who they are, of course; his parents never let him walk into social situations unprepared.

‘Could be hostile,’ part of him thinks. ‘Could be useful,’ says another.

He tries to be cautious, but Albus is too interesting, and Rose too quick and smart for him to ignore. He ends up in detention along with them after a food fight with the Hufflepuffs gets out of hand, Rose too, even though she thinks the waste of food is tragic.

That night, beneath his green canopy, he blinks back tears when he realises that his punishment was no worse than theirs. Maybe his parents have been afraid for nothing.

He doesn’t bother with his astronomy homework the next day.

***

When Albus is twelve, he gets into trouble for setting James’ schoolbag on fire in the corridor outside the Great Hall. Two of the Muggleborn first years panic, causing a bit of a scene, and before anyone thinks to put the flames out, James’ essays are nothing more than ash.

James isn’t upset. He tells his Head of House that his teachers are going to have to assume that his work was up to his usual excellent standard and give him the ‘O’s he deserves. 

“He’s so annoying!” Albus bursts out once James has been given permission to leave.

“Be that as it may, Mr Potter, we cannot tolerate the destruction of personal or school property in such a manner. Fifty points from Slytherin and two weeks worth of detention.”

Albus scowls. Mum smashes stuff all the time when James says something stupid.

He complains to Scorpius who tells him to stop being an idiot. “Either don’t get caught, or don’t destroy something you can’t repair or replace.”

Over Christmas, when James can’t take any more of Lily’s whining, he hides her favourite Harpies trophy, the one signed by the Blake sisters. 

Their parents suspect Albus first. He’s the one with the temper.

***

When Rose is fourteen, the summer after third year, Scorpius meets her family. She’s so embarrassed.

Dad’s more than a bit rude and Mum’s painfully overfriendly. Rose offers to show Scorpius her room, but then Dad explodes, of course, and says that no daughter of his is allowed to have a boy in her bedroom unsupervised. Mum suggests they take Hugo with them, which Rose thinks is an awful idea, but with which she agrees to get things moving. 

“So,” she says, with a nervous smile. “That’s my Mum and Dad.”

Scorpius never joined in at school when they all moaned about their parents. When she or Albus were ever overheard complaining then the Professors would remind them sternly that their parents won a war. They’ve learnt to keep quiet. 

She doesn’t want to know what’s been said to Scorpius.

***

When Scorpius is fifteen, both Rose and Albus admit to being attracted to him.

They’re sat outside by the lake on a rare sunny November morning, and they tell him together, a speech they have obviously rehearsed. It’s as awkward as it sounds, both of them staring at him so earnestly, that Scorpius can’t help but laugh to break the tension.

“Father always said that the Weasleys were idiots.” 

Ok, maybe that didn’t exactly help ease the atmosphere.

Before they can protest too badly, Scorpius explains. “I’d be flattered, really, but you’re only in this mess because you think I’m your only option. You don’t have to be friends first, you know.” He stands up. “Or if you do, then it’s perfectly legal to marry your cousin.”

He knows the way he feels about them isn’t right.

It’s not the blood his friends share that makes him shudder; it’s the rest of it.

***

When Albus is sixteen, he and Rose get to introduce Scorpius to Hogsmeade. Scorpius is seventeen, and therefore no longer has to stay behind because his parents refuse to give him permission. He begs Rose to disguise him before they leave, but she doesn’t.

Albus gets the feeling she’s conducting an experiment.

It isn’t until one of the wizards they pass snaps, “You’re not welcome here, Death Eater,” that Albus really understands though.

They’ve always looked like younger versions of their fathers, he and Scorpius, but aside from appearing occasionally in the background of photographs taken at King’s Cross Station, Draco Malfoy hasn’t been seen in the village for years. If the public had to picture him, they’d picture him as a teenager. They see Scorpius, and they’re afraid.

Albus yells at the old wizard, while Rose and Scorpius stand beside him. When he’s done, he turns to Scorpius to continue his tirade, “And you should tell your dad to get out more.”

Scorpius sneers. “Why? Your mum feeling lonely while her husband’s away?”

When Albus draws his wand, Rose steps between them. 

“It’s too dangerous,” she says. She means, it’s too dangerous _for Scorpius_.

“This was a mistake,” Scorpius says.

“Too fucking right,” Albus agrees. “You should go home.”

***

When Rose is seventeen, Albus splinches himself. Badly.

It’s horrific and awful and a Ministry Official has to cast preservation charms on his missing kidney and his right knee and maybe that’s a part of his intestines, while the Mediwitch keeping him alive turns paler and paler and someone leaves to fetch Uncle Harry and Auntie Ginny.

They haven’t even thrown up a privacy charm or anything, so Rose watches, stunned, as her best friend lies not ten metres away. She pulls her coat tight around her and hugs herself, until the receptionist leads her into the corridor outside.

“He wasn’t ready,” she stammers, “we all knew it. He wasn’t ready because he never fucking listens.” She’s crying, and she wants to be sick. “Bloody hell.”

Scorpius has known how to Apparate for years, just in case, and Albus wouldn’t take advice from him. Rose has shared his bed, and even secreted away from the world, he wouldn’t listen to her either.

“He’ll be all right,” the receptionist says. “I’ve seen much worse than this and they nearly always pull through.”

He offers her a drink of water, and when she declines, he tries to chat, make small talk. 

She delves into her bag and pulls out a book. “You must have work to do.”

***

When Scorpius is eighteen, he goes back to Malfoy Manor.

He did all right in his OWLs but barely scraped though his NEWTs and his parents are happy enough to welcome him back. They’re hardly pressed for space.

“There’s always the next generation,” one of the portraits says, when Scorpius announces that he can’t keep going out and dealing with the rejection.

Scorpius doesn’t tell it that he plans to be the last.

***

When Albus is eighteen, he breaks into the Ministry and shatters all the bottles of Veritaserum he can find.

“You don’t care for the truth,” he writes on the wall, or at least that’s what he intends to write, but he’s interrupted and Stunned before he can finish.

Dad’s called in a few minutes later, and protocol’s ignored as they’re left alone. Dad sighs. “Tell me you’re not going to do anything like this again, Albus.”

He must have breathed in the potion fumes or something, because when he looks into his Dad’s eyes for the first time in weeks, he can’t be anything but honest.

“I don’t know if I can stop myself.”

***

When Rose is eighteen, she walks away.

She’s an adult in both the Wizarding and Muggle worlds, and she makes sure to pack at least a month’s worth of supplies in a lightweight, waterproof rucksack.

On her desk there’s a long letter to Mum, a shorter one to Dad, and a note to Hugo telling him she loves him despite everything she ever said to the contrary.

There’s a bus that runs from the end of the road, the number twelve that stops in town. It goes every thirty minutes, every fifteen during the daytime. She’s seen it a million times.

She puts out her arm to catch the driver’s attention, and it stops next to her, as it would for a Muggle.

She doesn’t need to Disapparate to disappear.

***

  
[They fuck you up, your mum and dad.](http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178055)

***

  



End file.
